Delmar Mortensen, 1927-1944

MORTENSON, MORTENSEN

Posted By: Clay County IAGenWeb Coordinator (email)
Date: 1/19/2011 at 19:51:58

ROYAL YOUTH DIES OF INJURIES RECEIVED AT ARNOLDS PARK

Delmar Mortenson, 16, of Royal died Monday in a Spirit Lake hospital from injuries received Sunday when he fell from a roller coaster at Arnold Park.

The accident, the first at the Park this year, occurred at 1 p.m. Sunday on the roller coaster near the Majestic roller skating rink. It was reported that Mortensen was standing up in the front part of the car while a friend was standing up in the rear of the car. The coaster is seventy feet high with the first big dip seventy feet and the second dip, from which Mortensen fell, sixty feet. The Royal youth was taken to the Spirit Lake hospital immediately after the accident and attendants there stated it took almost all afternoon to sew the cuts.
The coast which was built in 1930 is said to be one of the largest west of Chicago. In 1934 a woman fell from one of the cars but was not killed. The next year a man fell and was fatally injured, and again in 1939 another fell from the coasters.

Interment in Willow Creek cemetery

Source: Vindicator and Republican, Estherville, Emmet County, Iowa; June 22, 1944.